To build the foundation for the Administration’s proposed Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) is allocating approximately $29 million from the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund.

Last month, President Donald J. Trump announced in his State of the Union Address a once-in-a-generation opportunity to achieve a 75% reduction in new HIV diagnoses in five years and a 90% reduction in 10 years. To do so, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed the unprecedented and bold Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America. During its initial phase, the Plan will focus on providing additional expertise, technology, and resources required to address the HIV epidemic in the jurisdictions where half of new HIV diagnoses in the country are concentrated—48 counties, Washington, DC, and San Juan, Puerto Rico—as well as to the seven states with a disproportionate occurrence of HIV in rural areas. The President’s FY2020 budget [PDF, 1.9MB] has proposed $291 million in additional funding to HHS for the first year of this initiative.

The Minority HIV/AIDS Fund (formerly referred to as the Secretary’s Minority AIDS Initiative Fund) has a long history of supporting transformative HIV prevention, care, and treatment for communities of color by bringing federal, state, and community organizations together to design and test innovative solutions that address critical emerging needs. A recent example is the multiyear, cross-agency Care and Prevention in the United States (CAPUS) demonstration project, which supported eight state health departments to implement innovative and effective strategies to reduce HIV and AIDS-related morbidity and mortality among racial and ethnic minorities (Read more about CAPUS in this special issue of Public Health Reports.)

To establish a foundation for the first phase of the Plan, resources from the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund will be disseminated through an internal federal competitive process that has invited proposals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Indian Health Service (IHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy (OHAIDP).

Throughout its 20-year history, the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund has bolstered and supported initiatives that respond innovatively to HIV among racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States. Through the use of the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund in service to the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, OASH signals its commitment to provide leadership, management, oversight and support for, and collaboration and coordination among HHS agencies, operating divisions, and external stakeholders that are crucial to its success.

Updated April 2019